The door of a vehicle is usually opened and closed by way of a handle mounted to the exterior of the vehicle door. Since such handles are exposed to the environment external to the vehicle, they are prone to becoming contaminated with environmental pollutants, such as dirt and dust. The handle on a tailgate of the vehicle may be particularly susceptible to the build-up of pollutants. Users of the tailgate may therefore need to touch a dirty handle in order to open or close the tailgate of the vehicle.
Constraints imposed on the vehicle's styling often mean that the door handle has restricted functionality. Moreover, the handle used to open the tailgate of the vehicle is often not configured to assist the user in closing the tailgate. Besides, the tailgate handle is often inaccessible to the user once the tailgate is in the fully-open, overhead position.
It is known to provide an addition handle on the interior surface of the tailgate to assist the user in closing the tailgate. However, such interior handles may still be difficult to reach and may require the user to switch their grip back to the exterior handle to complete the action of closing the tailgate.
Whilst interior handles may be protected from environmental pollutants and therefore remain clean, the interior handle provides no means of assisting the user in opening the tailgate.
It is seen as advantageous, therefore, to provide a handle that is protected from environmental pollutants and permits the user to open and close the tailgate of a vehicle using a single motion.